Sword and shield. (Clinton, Miss.) 1885-1888, 1887-04-30
The Great Buddha.

The temple of Dai-Doutson (the
great Buddha) seems a temple built
for fun-an enormous joke to amuse
the faithful.
This Great Buddha" has only
head and shoulders, at least ninety
five feet high; he seems to be using
from the depths Of the earth, with his
neck stretching up like someone MAX
ing painful effort to struggle out Of
the ground. He alone fills all his
temple, and his curling hair touches
its roof.
One reaches him, just as all the gods
are reached, by series Of stairWays,
porticoes, and courts. From the gate
of the sanctuary one can not very well
explain to oneself at the first glance
what is that hillock of gold, that shape
less mass in front (the shoulders OF
Buddha). 1t is only afterward, when
you look up very high, that you see far
above you the colossal gilded face, the
huge fixed eyes gazing down upon you
from the height of ninety feet with
idiotic placidity.
find myself making this pilgrimage
at the same time as a gOod-natured
Nippon family of country people, who
have come to the holy city for the first
time; and the good folks, especially
the ladies, can not get over the idea
of seeing SO big a god; and there are
cries of ''Ah!" and 20! '-exclama-
tions of surprise-little screams and
little laughs. No, really! this Buddha
is Just too funny, with his stork-neck
and his stupid air-funny as any OF
those snow men which urchins make
at the corners of the streets-funny as
some enormous caricature made to or
der by little children. And there the
little country family are all laughing
right under the gods nose-laughing
till the tears roll down their cheeks,
and the other visitors, and even the
guardian bronzes themselves, also
laugh to see them laugh. Then they
all look at me to see how l felt about
it, and / have to laugh, too-can't pos
sibly help it. What a country this
Japan, where everything is oddity and
contrast Who could ever imagine
that this frivolous little temple, with
its reverences and its eternal laugh,
could have lived through centuries
locked UP in such ferocious mystery,
4 and have given birth to those thOus.
ands of other temples, with their mon.
sters and their hobgoblins?
BY the payment of 2 cents one is
privileged to make the round of the
great Buddha-one ascends by series
of sloping plank galleries, placed at q
very steep angle, on which you car
pass behind the head of the colossus, 9
little above the nape of the neck.
advance upon it, still accompanied by
the voyaging family; the sloping way
is slippery, old, broken through here
and there, worm-eaten-the ladies very
nearly fall. put out my hand to helI
them, and then we become GOOD
friends right away. Behind the enor
nous head, in a dark nook, an ole
bronze is squatting down-for l cent
he shows us a suit or armor and wal
mask which once belonged to the great
Toxic Sama-and then he throws oper
for our benefit sundry very ancient lido
closets in which animal-headed divini
ties are conserved and various relics
of weird respect. There we do no
laugh any more.
In the court of this temple is th'
most monstrous of all the bells o
Kioto-at least seven or perhaps eigh
Yards around. 1t is rung by means
of an enormous beam tipped with irOl
"a sort of battering-ram suspended
horizontally with ropes.
For 2 cents extra one has the righ
to experiment with it. | harness my
self to the pulling straps, a circle i
formed around me, and children rul
up. Even two or three young girl
come behind me and take hold, bother
inc me a great deal, pulling the wron!
way half the time, bursting into fits o
, laughter. The united strength OF tn
three is almost equal to the power o
three good kittens.
Meanwhile the battering-ram be
gins to yield; gradually it begins t
swing. Boom-boOm! A sound awful
cavernous, and prolonged into might
orchestral vibrations which must b
heard through the whole of the sacred
city.
Then the audience is so happy!-de
lirious with joy-cant get enough O
it; everyone laughs; everyone II
ecstasy.-Neao Orleans ISnaeS-Denao
Gratis Translation from the French,